The Importance of Joseph Smith vs. the Bible in Mormon Church

Two years shy of the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s birth, the LDS Church ran an article in the December 2003 Ensign on the wonders of Joseph Smith entitled ‘Joseph Smith the Restorer’. We’re taking a look at some of the comments made by past LDS leaders about Smith, and comparing those with the Bible!

If you’re LDS, we pray that as you read over these. you’ll ask yourself a few questions –

1.Is this biblical? Where does it say this in the Bible?

2.Are they glorifying Joseph or Jesus?

3.How does this glorify God?

4.Is the statement true?

As always, we want to reiterate that we’re not doing this to bash Mormons! We publish this information to inform. Our hearts are broken for the Mormon people and pray daily they come to have a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ!

So here we go, let’s take a look at the importance of Joseph Smith. From what we’ve seen, this man is clearly more important than Jesus Himself.

“In a single stunning moment, 14-year-old Joseph Smith learned a great truth about Jesus Christ that had been lost for centuries: that the Savior, though perfectly one in purpose with God the Father, is in fact a separate and distinct personage with a glorified physical body of His own. The Prophet Joseph Smith had other personal experiences with Jesus Christ while translating the plates that would become the Book of Mormon and while in the Kirtland Temple. Through Joseph many other lost doctrinal truths about Christ were restored. – LDS Church, Ensign December 2003

Questions:

If this was true where are the details?

Who lost the informative truth about God?

When did this take place?

Where are the independent documentations backing up this claim?

The only resources citing this event come from the LDS Church who quotes from Joseph Smith’s rewrite of the Bible.

No one else in the world uses the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, outside of the Mormon Church.

Why is that?

Does this bother you?

Why does God’s word contradict Joseph Smith’s new version of the Bible?

Harold B. Lee, Eleventh LDS Prophet said –

President Harold B. Lee (1899–1973)

“No man can accept Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, no man can accept this as His church, the Church of Jesus Christ, unless he can accept Joseph Smith as God’s mouthpiece and the restorer of His work in these latter days” (The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, ed. Clyde J. Williams [1996], 371).

Thirteenth prophet and president, Ezra Taft Benson made the following declarations about Smith’s role in his personal life and what he (Smith) meant to God –

“President Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994)

“God has in very deed revealed Himself from the heavens. He did raise up the boy prophet. …

“Joseph Smith has done more for the salvation of men in this world than any man who ever lived in it, except the Master (see D&C 135:3). He stands at the head of this dispensation—the greatest gospel dispensation of all time—and all the world will someday come to realize that he is in very deed a prophet of the Living God” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson [1988], 131–32).”

Tomorrow we’re looking at a few more comments made by LDS leaders, and comparing those with historical biblical events of the Bible’s existence and why it can be trusted!

Pray for those who need to hear this truth that God will open their eyes and hearts!

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